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McGee says Keighley win is a start

Keighley’s Danny McGee didn’t beat about the bush after their crucial SSE Yorkshire Division One derby win over Old Brodleians last Saturday.

“It was a massive game and next week’s away game at Pontefract is even more important,” said the experienced full back as Keighley gave their survival hopes a shot in the arm with a 20-9 home victory.

“We can play better than that and it is a start but there is a lot of the season to go.”

Keighley, who only need to climb one place to survive, now trail Pontefract by ten points and a bonus-point win for them on Saturday would cut that in half with eight matches remaining.

“It was a badly-needed win,” said Keighley’s director of rugby Graeme Sheffield, whose side had lost their previous eight league matches, albeit four of them narrowly.

“The aim from now on is to hit teams early in our home games – some of them will have travelled long distances and we hope to catch them while they are ‘still on the bus’.

“It was as good a forward display as we have produced all season and I told Shaun Minikin to follow our other flanker Dave Pullen.

“Hopefully he will have learnt from a master.

“Meanwhile, Leigh Sugden has his critics but the opposition cannot stop him.”

Sugden scored Keighley’s second try, with fly half Alex Brown landing both conversions and two penalties.

Five of Keighley’s remaining matches are away from home but two are against the bottom three and five matches in all have them facing sides currently in the bottom half of the table. Sheffield added: “In Premier League terms, next weekend is a ‘six-pointer’.”

The Keighley chief had sympathy for broken-leg victim Craig Dyson, who has joined his brother Scott on the sidelines for the rest of the season.

Sheffield said: “It is a pity about Craig as he has worked so hard to get where he is.

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